Daynote - Tue 12 May 2026

It was raining and grey when I got up this morning, so I decided to work a little longer and make some more progress on the edit. Of course, because I live on the coast, it's quite often grey and damp first thing and then gets really nice once the sea fog burns off, which is exactly what happened this morning, so now I'm regretting not getting out for a walk. Oh well. I'm going into town tonight so I'll get the steps in regardless.

Got a lovely blurb from fellow Scot and award-winning author Callum McSorley yesterday, which absolutely made my day:

ON DECK: Another six chapters edited (including some longer scenes) and -300 words cut, as well as half a dozen continuity errors fixed, extraneous words removed, emotions clarified, dialogue tuned and all the myriad things I do in an edit performed. A solid morning's editing.

TOOLS AND PROCESS: What I'm doing at the moment is a fairly uncomplicated 'linear edit', which is increasingly my main editing tool. Back when I was teaching myself to edit, I used to avoid the front-to-back linear edit a lot because I associated it with the kind of 'editing' I used to do as a novice writer a decade or more ago, which was basically just skim-reading and occasionally fiddling with commas.

However, after eleven finished novel drafts and production work on multiple novel projects, I've learned to trust my instincts a lot more, so a front-to-back linear edit combined with a timeline in Aeon to keep track of the fiddly details is my tool of choice about 90% of the time. Sometimes some heavy structural lifting is unavoidable, but it turns out for me, most of the time, the best way to make a book better is just read it repeatedly and change stuff as I go.

LISTENING: I really enjoyed this long interview with novelist Will Carver over on The Conversation with Nadine Matheson, it's a great look at the ups and downs of a longer career, especially the pitfalls of a big publishing deal earlier in your career.

WATCHING: We watched the one-off prequel episode of THE BEAR, 'Gary', last night, which was a fascinating (and brutal) look at the back story of two of the key characters from the main show. Ooft, is my summary.

READING: I finished CHILDREN OF STRIFE by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) while at the dentist and it absolutely stuck the landing. Fantastic fun and a huge scope. Then I started on SLOW GODS by Claire North (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon) which is also fantastic. The prose is just gleaming. Both of these are, of course, for the panel I'm chairing at Cymera Festival, which I'm really looking forward to. One more book after this, THE LAST CONTRACT OF ISAKO by Fonda Lee (Bookshop, Waterstones, Amazon).

LINK: This evening I'm off into Edinburgh to see fellow DHH client Frances White in conversation with Hannah Kaner at Waterstones West End. Looks like there's still a few tickets available, so do come along!

UP NEXT: Off to town as above, then back into the edits tomorrow, plus a podcast recording, then another event (this time with Nick Binge and Gareth Brown) on Thursday, then another podcast recording on Friday. And, hopefully, lots more edits. I'm on track to hit 25 chapters edited this week, which is exactly where I want to be.

Onward!